Big Day

Today was a big day for Britton as he was baptized by his Dad. He was so excited to get baptized and really had a great day. Both sets of grandparents were able to be at his baptism.


Here are the members of Adam's family in attendance:

My side of the family had great intentions of getting a picture with everyone, but somehow it never happened. My parents, sister Tiffany and her daughter Abigail and my sister Heather and her family were all able to come to the baptism.

Notice Korinne's short hair cut. Ever since Jenna cut her hair Korinne has been asking to get her hair cut. On Monday I told her I would take her to the haircut store when it opened at 11:00 a.m. For 2 hours I had to listen to Korinne ask me, "Is it open yet? Is it open yet?" every 5 minutes. She REALLY wanted to get her hair cut. You can imagine my thoughts when we finally got there and I realized they had actually been open since 9 a.m. Silly me. I'm just thankful she didn't pull a "Jenna" and cut it off by herself!

Anyway, congrats to Britton! We are proud of him and are glad he had such a great day.

Dedicated

Today Adam and I were able to participate in the dedication of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. The first presidency cancelled all regular Sunday meetings across the entire state so that everyone could go to their stake center and participate in one of the sessions via satellite. I don't know when that has ever happened before but it was nice to have an entire Sunday to focus on something so special. To be able to attend you had to be at least 8 years old and baptized. Britton is 8 but won't be getting baptized until Saturday so he missed it by only 6 days. I was kind of sad he had to miss such an event but the Stake President was firm and we were happy to abide by whatever he said. It really is a beautiful temple.

Back in the saddle again

Britton's first day of 2nd grade.


Jenna's first day of 1st grade.


Korinne's first day of being the only one at home with Mom and Dad.


I found her in the linen closet playing with her Barbie. She didn't seem to mind having Britton and Jenna gone all day and found plenty of things to do to keep her busy. Unfortunately for Adam this involved going into his office a lot more than usual.

I got a call from the school at about 10:30 a.m. telling me that Britton had been stung by a bee during recess. They just wanted to make sure he wasn't allergic to bee stings. What a way to start out the first day of school AND his birthday. The only other call I've ever received from the school was last year on Jenna's birthday. She had fallen into a huge puddle and her clothes were drenched so they were calling so I could bring a complete change of clothes for her. My kids don't have a lot of luck on their birthdays when it comes to recess. Anyway, Britton said his first day of school was great (I got to peak in on him when I brought treats for his birthday in the afternoon), but Jenna said everything about her first day was boring. Even lunch was boring. I wasn't sure what that meant as she isn't one to expound when asked specific questions, but was rather relieved when at the end of her 2nd day she said everything was awesome and she loved school. I asked her what her favorite thing was as she replied with "everything." So I asked my usual follow-up, "What was your least favorite thing?" She gave the equally informative response of, "nothing." I have no idea what exactly changed from day one to day two, but she has always loved everything about school in the past so I'm pretty sure it will carry through to this year as well.

At the end of their first day we celebrated Britton's 8th birthday.

Grandma and Grandpa P came up for the festivities along with Aunt Tiffany and cousin Abigail who are in town from Texas. Aunt Kim and soon-to-be Uncle Ben came as well so we had quite the group to celebrate with us. Britton loved his birthday and he loves being 8 and is super excited to be baptized next Saturday. Last night I was checking on the kids when I found him reading out of his new scriptures. "I'm right where they are talking about the armies of Helaman!" he exclaimed excitedly. I replied, "Ooh, that's a good part" and he just smiled and kept on reading. He's a good kid.

Let's get this party started

It's Britton's birthday eve and the last day of summer vacation. (sigh) We started off the celebration with his friend birthday party. It was a true "Hilary" party (simple planning and no froo froo stuff). We had everyone come to a little mini-golf place not far from our house.


Everyone was under 12, I had 3 free games and we got the group rate. Final total to take 13 kids mini-golfing? 20 bucks. Add ice cream bars, donuts and water and what do you have? 13 very happy kids who had a GREAT time and one Mom who had a stress free birthday party with 5 min. of cleanup time. The party ended at 3 p.m. and by 3:15 we were home again and the house was as clean as when we left. It was AWESOME!

Britton and 11 of his closest friends warming up their golf swings.

It was Korinne and Jenna's first time golfing. They didn't last as long as the older kids, but they still had fun.

The kids broke up into 2 groups and were able to keep score and do everything by themselves.

Ok, so I didn't drag a big cake out to the Willows golf park, but the kids were just as happy to have donuts and ice cream bars. Here is Britton's birthday donut before he blew the candle out.

We had them sitting down to open the presents, but it wasn't too long before they were packed in so tight Britton couldn't even move. There was a lot of "oooh"ing and "Ahh"ing when he opened anything that had to do with Pokemon. (Pokemon is all the rage in our neighborhood these days)

It was fun and Britton really enjoyed his day.

Tonight we went to back to school night where the whole concept of going to school in the morning started to feel more real. The kids met their teachers and I really like them both. I'm also pleased because Jenna's class has 21 kids and Britton's class has 23. I remember having like 30 or 31 when I was growing up so I'm glad the class sizes are smaller around here. Here is Jenna with her new teacher Mrs. Theobald.

I wasn't able to get Britton with his teacher, Mrs. Rees, but since it is his birthday tomorrow I will be going in during the afternoon with treats for his class.

Korinne will start preschool this year. We are doing a joy school with her and 5 other kids in the neighborhood. All of the Mom's will take turns teaching which means I will teach 6 different weeks during the year. She is really excited to start preschool and feels very grown up.

Change is in the air. . .can you feel it?

Party On

The last moments of the kids' summer vacation are slipping away much to the dismay of Britton and Jenna. They have had so much fun this summer that unlike years past they don't feel ready to start back to school. Britton's hair is a lot lighter in color than when the summer began due to being out in the sun all day every day, and Jenna is a shade of bronze I have not seen on ANY relative of mine in a looooong time.

School starts on Thursday which is also Britton's 8th Birthday. We were trying to come up with a birthday party plan for him and decided to have a party the day before (the 19th) and have all of his friends wear their swimming suits and play water games in the back yard. We thought we had it all figured out until the OTHER party invitations started to come in. Britton first got invited to a end of summer party the day before his planned party with everyone coming in swim suits and playing with water in the back yard. As if that wasn't enough 2 more invitations came in for today and BOTH were "wear your swim suits and we'll play water games in the back yard" parties. One from 1:00-3:00 and the other from 3:30-5:00. Just in case you lost count that would be 4 parties in 3 days all with the same kids doing the same kind of stuff. Needless to say our water party miraculously turned into a miniature golfing party and the invitations are in the process of being tweaked. Jenna also got invited to a back to school party this afternoon so Korinne and I are getting a sneak peak at what is is store for us this school year--lots of quality bonding time. Sheesh, have you ever heard of so many parties in one week? This doesn't make going back to school any easier for my 2 little party animals.

On Saturday night after digging a hole in an area in our yard where we have plans to put in a firepit next year Adam started a fire and got out everything to make s'mores. Then we sent the kids around to invite the neighbors to come and gather around the fire and we ended up with quite a crowd. I took a picture of a few people who were there and tried to make it look like we were actually out in the wilderness.

Convincing? Hope so. Perhaps with pictures like this around my kids will think we actually took them camping a few times. Is it sad that Adam and I had been married for 7 years before I discovered that we actually owned a tent? What's even worse is that even after I discovered the tent we have yet to use it. Apparently we are quite the campers.

Long gone

Jenna's hair was really long.

A few months ago she learned about Locks of Love, an organization that takes hair donations and makes wigs for children who have lost their hair from cancer treatments or other medical conditions. Jenna decided that she really wanted to donate her hair and yesterday she asked me all day long if she could finally go and get it cut.

Getting ready for the final cut.

It's gone! Jenna was beaming after the final cut.

Here she is with her new look, which she loves. I think I will miss her hair more than she will. She was really excited about being able to donate it and once she decides something, she never looks back. Way to go, Jenna!

Tough enough to wear pink

We went to the County Fair and Rodeo last night at the fairgrounds. The Rodeo was doing a breast cancer awareness night so all of the cowboys and rodeo royalty wore pink. I witnessed something I never thought I would see-- all of the tough cowboys in pink shirts, but pink they were.

Do you think they all had a pink shirt on hand? Or was the local Cal Ranch store caught off guard? I can hear the conversation now, "Mable, that is the 5th cowboy coming in for a pink shirt. . .what is going on?!" Anyway, it was a fun rodeo and although we didn't get to spend a lot of time at the fair we did enjoy a few scones. I think it would be impossible to go to a fair and not have a huge scone. Yummy. My parents came up for the festivities and I must say we picked the perfect night to go to the rodeo. The Thursday rodeo had terrible winds, and today it has been raining all day so its probably going to be a bit muddy and cool tonight. Last night was perfect.

My kids are all in redneck training. We are becoming demolition derby and rodeo regulars.

A little nightime reading

In Jenna and Korinne's world beds are not used for sleeping. They have far more important roles to play such as personal bedroom trampolines and for extra storage when they don't feel like putting things away but have been instructed to "clean up their rooms." I've blogged before about our nightly task of finding where our kids have fallen asleep for the night because it is different every night. Korinne's sleeping location of choice is on the floor by her night light. This is what we found last night before going to bed:

Upon further investigation we were pretty sure Korinne was under there.

But just to make sure Adam picked up the book.

Yup. There she is! But the question remains, how in the world was she able to fall asleep that way? Just another bedtime mystery to keep things exciting around here.

Jenna found a new way to annoy Britton. Unbeknownst to her it is a technique employed the world over and goes waaaaaay back. It is the ol' "repeat everything the person says" game. Unfortunately for Jenna, it didn't take Britton too long before he figured out a way for it to stop. You see, the first few attempts were super successful and Jenna was practically giddy with joy as Britton slid into utter frustration and began screaming things like, "Stop repeating me!" and trying to not burst into tears. A few days later when Jenna started into what she considered a fool proof method of utter annoyance Britton pulled a fast one.

Britton, "Jenna, stop repeating what I say!"

Jenna, "Jenna, stop repeating what I say!"

Britton, "Britton is the best brother in the whole world!"

Jenna (after a pause and with less enthusiasm) "Britton is the best brother in the whole world."

Britton, "I love Britton SO much!"

Jenna, "Um, let's play something else. . ."

I've got to hand it to Britton, it was a genius move. Needless to say Jenna doesn't repeat what he says anymore.

In the trenches

As a Mom there are times when you can just feel that you are doing a great work. You can practically hear choirs of angels sing as your child reaches some great milestone and you cry tears of joy . . .and then there is the other 98% of the time. This is the time when you are literally "in the trenches". This involves cleaning speckled toilet seats (for the 3rd time that day) trying to keep your kids groomed when they are determined to look homeless, trying to get them to close the door behind them ("but when I go back outside in 20 min. it will save me so much time by not having to open the door again"), trying to get them to stay in their rooms at night, trying to get them to do the dishes ("But do I have to, Mom?. . .Ok, when has the answer to that question ever been "no"??), trying to get them to stop teasing each other, fighting, etc. The last few weeks I have definitely been in the trenches. I love being a Mom, but is it Ok for me to admit that sometimes they drive me absolutely CRAZY?! For some reason my kids have been extra hyper and unusually difficult lately. Is there a full moon or something? Adam has had to hear me say, "I think I'm going crazy" at least 4 times a day. The kids are out playing in our circle a lot of the day so it isn't like they are getting cabin fever or anything, but getting them to calm down for anything has been next to impossible. Please don't think less of me, people, I'm just keepin' it real. For FHE tonight we had to have "reverence school" at least 3 times just to get through it.

Since the time Korinne was old enough to pick a song to sing for family home evening she has insisted that we sing, "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam" for both the opening and closing song. No exaggeration here, we have literally sung that song over 104 times for FHE so tonight when Korinne ran up to lead the song we asked her,
"What would you like to sing, Korinne?"
"Umm, let me fink about it for a minute you guys." (I love the way she says "fink" instead of "think")
After some real soul searching which involved having her index finger on her chin and her eyes focused on the ceiling she enthusiastically declared, "Sunbeam!" which was met with the usual groans from Jenna and Britton. Every once in awhile we sing 2 opening songs just to have a little variety.

So, if you haven't heard from me in awhile it is because I am desperately looking for my sanity. Any clues as to where it can be found?